Marketing to mums has evolved beyond the stereotypical view of an apron-clad, harassed housewife, herding the family around the table for tea. Major corporations, such as Procter & Gamble with its ‘Proud Sponsor of Moms’ Olympics platform, have placed significant spend behind what P&G terms building meaningful relationships with mothers.

Agencies have also reassessed their approach to targeting mums. In March Saatchi&Saatchi, presented Motherhood Is Not A Job at Mumstock, an event organised by Mumsnet. Their research argues that too often brands identify motherhood as a series of chores. Instead, brands need to switch focus to the playful mother and child relationship and consider that being a mum might be about caring, but is also about breaking the rules. This followed earlier 2014 research Truth About Mums, which revealed that only 19% of UK mums are able to relate to their representation in advertising.

As brands seek to address such findings they are beginning to work more closely with highly-active online communities. Boots recently partnered with Netmums to create the Boots Parenting Club, an online channel that provides support for mums whilst learning from them at the same time.

Mums transcend such a wide demographic, which makes common themes of nurturing, support and playfulness so important for communications. New research from Kantar Media, Channel Mum, found that mums under 30 (the so-called Generation V) are cost-conscious and maintain traditional values but also possess an appetite for luxury and technology. With this in mind, we should expect marketing to mums to become even smarter, using technology to find new ways of strengthening the playful bond between mum and child.

Read on for examples…